The job market in the United States is in a crisis mode so dire that coming by a job opportunity today is almost a delicacy or a luxury while remaining a necessity of survival. As a recent college graduate, the reality of finding, achieving, and succeeding at a career in my job field is all too real. Even after completing an accredited degree program and internships, employers seem to skip over recent graduates due to their lack of experience. I am willing to say that if entry-level jobs were an animal, then they would be an endangered species.
According to an article written by Patricia Cohen in the October 2, 2015 issue of the New York Times, “With Friday’s revision, job gains have averaged just 167,000 a month for the last three months.”
On the first Friday morning in October instead of enjoying the first signs of fall (cooler weather, pumpkin spice in my coffee, sweaters and scarves) I’m distracted by the September Job Report. Proving many young people are sulking around to dead-end jobs that they do not care about just to pay their bills. The average college student spends four to five years building and refining the skills needed to succeed only to be cast out into the real world with a piece of paper stating their credentials in hand and a sparkle of achievement in their eye that fades as quickly as the dust begins collecting on their diploma.
142,000 more jobs seems pretty impressive if you have not been keeping up with reports from previous months. Unfortunately many of the previous months’ reports presented have later been changed and restated.
Dunstan Prial at Fox Business states, “The number of jobs created in July was initially reported as 245,000 but was revised down to 223,000, and the change for August was revised from 173,000 down to 136,000. The revisions mean that employment gains in July and August combined were 59,000 less than previously reported. Over the past 3 months, job gains have averaged 167,000 per month, well below the recent averages.”
Are these reports being beefed up with estimations before being released to the media on the first of the month when the hype for their results is inflated and later the real, lower number is released so maybe not as many people notice?
I personally have an English degree. There are multiple articles on the awesome, diverse, and coveted experiences a degree in English can offer. Which results in a broad field, English programs provide knowledge needed in journalism, real estate, paralegal positions, teaching, publishing, politics, communications, advertising, government agencies, marketing, or human resources. Graduate school even increases these opportunities. Still, when there are no jobs available these opportunities vanish.
“There’s nothing good in this morning’s report, we had very low levels of job creation, wage growth isn’t budging, and the unemployment rate would have risen if the labor force participation rate hadn’t fallen.” Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust in Chicago, said in a New York Times interview.
The Senior Administrative Assistant of the English Department at the University of North Alabama is very diligent every month to post The National Employment Bulletin for both the liberal arts professions and communications professions available across all 50 US states. These bulletins list current jobs in communication, writing, editing, and the range for liberal arts is unimaginable. Nonetheless, for the month of September one single job was listed for the entire state of Alabama. One. This only job was also part-time. How are we expecting the economy to improve when people are struggling to pay their bills and do not have anything extra to put back into the community?
What is the likelihood of finding a job immediately after graduation compared to one year after graduation, after two years, after five years, how about after ten? The graduates that settle for jobs outside of their desired field might work their way up over time, but what happens when they get tired of a job they are not passionate about? How can they pursue their passion without opportunity?
Rutgers University performed a study including 444 interviews in 2012 with graduates from 2006 through 2011 stating, “Three in four were able to find at least one full-time job since graduation. But, only 51 percent were working full-time, 20 percent were attending graduate or professional school and 12 percent were either unemployed or employed part-time and looking for full-time work.”
In August of 2015, the state of Alabama had a 6.2% unemployment rate which has improved since August of 2014 with a rate of 7.2. According to the Alabama Department of Labor, but when nine out of 67 counties have more than 10% unemployment this is a huge issue. What is being done in the state of Alabama to bring in more jobs? Outsourcing jobs to save big corporations a little pocket change has torn our country’s economy apart.
Since the addition of the Remmington, GE, Jack Daniels, metal alloy, and auto industry plants in 2014 our state should be booming with jobs. In the last year, articles claiming 500 jobs available here, 2,000 jobs coming there, 50 here, 50 more there have circulated in the local media like hot cakes. Shouldn’t all of these opportunities add up to more than a 1% improvement?
Entry-level jobs have become a thing of the past. Applicants to new jobs are expected to have at least two years of experience. After four to five years of college classes designed to concentrate on specific criteria and a semester or sometimes two semesters spent in the job setting at internships graduates do not meet employers’ requirements for an entry-level job. These jobs need to be called what they are, experience required not entry-level. How are recent graduates expected to have two years of experience without the opportunity to work for any?
We need to fix this standard. We need more real entry-level jobs introduced. We need opportunity.
Without young employees, who will do the job when a current employee retires?
To read more on this topic:
Brittany Coons - Digital Portfolio 